


Tearing Us (Me) Apart

by RobinPlaysTrumpet15



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cuban Lance (Voltron), Gen, Homesick Lance (Voltron), Lance needs help, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Worth Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-10-16 23:05:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10581351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobinPlaysTrumpet15/pseuds/RobinPlaysTrumpet15
Summary: The team is falling apart, and it's because of Lance. He can't tell them everything he deals with. They'll just lie to his face again, like everyone else. So what is there to do?





	1. Me, The Problem

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! My first Voltron fic. This has been a long time coming. Anyway, I hope you like this. Obviously, I do not own Voltron or any of the characters.
> 
> WARNING: RATING, WARNINGS, AND RELATIONSHIPS SUBJECT TO CHANGE!

“He’s avoiding us, Shiro!”

“Leave him alone, Keith.”

“He won’t talk to us, he won’t look at us, he won’t even sit in the same room as us anymore!”

“I know that, but I think we just need to leave him alone for now.”

“I would agree with that if we hadn’t nearly lost him in the last fight! I would let it go if we could form Voltron! But we can’t! He almost died. Again!”

“Keith, please-”

“No, Shiro! He’s hurting! There’s something wrong and it’s going to get him killed!”

Silence. That was not the response Shiro had expected. It was a well known fact that Keith and Lance did not get along. And that was fine for the most part, but it did get in the way occasionally. They both had their moments where they could sit and talk, laugh even. Those times never lasted long, but when they were apart, Shiro could see a difference.

Without one of them around, the other was more open about caring for each other. The compassion caught Shiro off guard every time. It’s not that he thought they really, truly disliked each other, it was that he couldn’t figure out what the problem was. Why couldn’t they act like that when they were standing right in front of each other? Why did they have to poke and prod at one another until they exploded? Just… why?

“Keith, I know you’re worried about him. We all are. But he needs space.” Shiro said quietly. He used his low tone as a signal for Keith to chill. He’d found at the Garrison that the best way to “control” Keith was to just act as you want him to. Give him an example. Or, at the very least, that worked for Shiro. Not many other people had managed to accomplish this tactic, but hey, whatever works.

“But Shiro,” Keith pleaded, his own tone lowering to match the older’s. “We’ve given him space, and he just continues to get worse…”

That was something Shiro couldn’t dispute. Lance was getting worse.

*

The mirror was mocking him. Or, Lance told himself it was mocking him.

Whoever the hell was staring back at him was not Lance. It was the person Lance was supposed to be. He was confident, goofy, smiling. He was charming and smooth, handsome. He was the best shot out of the entire team. He could pilot just as well as Keith could.

But that… that was a lie. Lance was none of those things. He was insecure. He knew he was not good with the ladies (or anyone else, for that matter), and he was probably the clumsiest person to ever walk the face of the planet. When he tried to be smooth, it came out as awkward and unsettling. And had he looked in the mirror recently? The words “Lance” and “handsome” didn’t go together in a sentence unless there was a giant NOT somewhere in the middle. And please? Voltron’s sharpshooter? Give him a break. He was lucky to hit in the same general vicinity of where he was aiming.

Of course, he knew that if he told anyone else about this, the first thing out of their mouth would be, “Lance, what are you talking about?” or “Of course not, Lance, that’s not true.” But you can’t fool him. The others may feel like they need to lie to him, but he knew what was really going on.

He was useless.

A waste of space.

Inadequate.

A failure.

Lance wanted to scream. He wanted to cry and reach out and punch something. He wanted to shatter the glass before him, as if he could shatter himself. People always said that once you hit rock bottom, you can only go up from there. But, he couldn’t tell if that was true or not. At this point, he just felt like he was falling. Falling endlessly with no stopping in sight.

How could he possibly get any worse than this?

But really, he knew he couldn’t do any of those things. He wouldn’t break the mirror because someone would ask about it. Ask about the cuts on his knuckles. He wouldn’t scream or cry because someone might hear him.

The last thing he needed was for the team to really know how he felt, and it wasn’t like they weren’t already suspicious. He was drawing away from them, and he knew they could see it. They hadn’t been able to form Voltron in the last battle against one of Zarkon’s robeasts because of him. The team wasn’t whole. It was like in the beginning when Pidge had been keeping secrets from the team about themselves and their family.

They couldn’t continue like this, and he knew it. They all knew it.

But what could he do?


	2. The Peace of Forgetting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance runs from a team confrontation with Allura and finds himself a little lost in the castle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo, I'm back rather quickly. This chapter is longer than the first. I hope you all like it.
> 
> WARNING: RATING, WARNINGS, AND RELATIONSHIPS SUBJECT TO CHANGE!

This battle had not gone any better than the one before it. Actually, it had gone worse. Zarkon had heard about Team Voltron’s near defeat with his last beast, and he instructed Haggar to form a bigger one, as stronger one, a deadlier one. And they had almost lost. Again. It was a miracle, a pure miracle, that anyone of them had made it out alive.

But they were still hurt. Lance more than the others.

“Damn it!” Keith yelled. He wasn’t the only one thinking it, either. The black haired teen tugged the helmet off his head roughly, going to slam it down against the floor before Shiro’s arm caught his. Keith made a frustrated sound, needing to let his anger out somehow.

“Keith, calm down. It’s alright.” Shiro huffed. He was out of breath and just as frustrated as the others. This was the second time they hadn’t been able to form Voltron, and this time it had costed lives. Few had died, but they meant a lot to someone. The paladins had eventually saved the native people of Kamala, much to their relief. But now there were dead Kamalians, and a communal burial to attend.

“No, it’s not alright!” Keith yelled, dropping his helmet so it hit the floor with a clatter and rolled away. “We couldn’t form Voltron again! Something has to be done!”

“Paladins,” Allura’s voice sounded over the intercom. “Report to the control bridge. Now.”

Keith glanced at Shiro, catching his eyes before turning to the door and storming away. Shiro sighed and followed him, stooping down as he went to pick up Keith’s forgotten helmet.

“Paladins.” Allura said. She stood with her back facing the five teens, her hands clutched tightly behind her back. Everything about her stance and posture screamed a warning to Shiro. The Altean was rigid, unmoving. Coran stood off to the side, surveying the scene. He had a look of disappointment in his eyes. “What. Was. That.”

No one answered.

Suddenly Allura rounded on them.

“This is the second time you have not been able to form Voltron, and now innocent lives have paid for it! You cannot continue like this! Not only does it put others in danger, it puts you in danger too!”

Shiro glanced to his left and to his right, noting how none but Keith looked Allura head on. Pidge starred of to their side, Hunk up towards the ceiling. Lance on the other hand had his head hung low, his eyes focussed on this shoes, arms crossed over his chest. And, maybe Shiro was seeing things, but it looked as if he was trembling.

“What is the issue?” Allura all but pleaded. The hard tone to her voice dropped suddenly and she seemed to lean forward unconsciously. “Where is the disconnect?”

Not a breath passed before Keith was answering her. “I’ll tell you where it is, it’s right there.” He jabbed his thumb to his right, motioning to Lance.

Without looking, the taller boy knew exactly who Keith meant and seemed to curl further into himself, tucking his chin towards his chest and tightening his crossed arms.

“Lance. Is there something that needs to be said? Are you having a problem with your lion?” Allura asked. Lance was shaking his head quicker than was necessary as Coran jumped into action.

“Help with your lion, eh? Why, I could help you! I remember back in the day, plenty of the paladins came to me for help with their lions! There was nothing ol’ Coran couldn’t-”

“No! I don’t need help, I’m not having trouble, and I don’t need you acting like you care!”

In a flash, Lance was out of the room and sprinting away through the corridors. The room was still without him. Allura just stared after Lance with a fury blazing in her eyes. Shiro counted seven breaths before the princess spoke again.

“I don’t care what you do or how you do it, but you five had better get this fixed. Now.” Allura demanded. “I expect it to be cleared up by the time we must go to the funeral pier this evening.”

“This evening?!” Pidge demanded, shocked.

“Yes, Pidge. Now hop to it.”

With that, Allura turned away from them, her loose hair whipping about in her face.

*

His room wasn’t safe, Lance knew that. If anyone came looking for him (and based on his outburst, they most definitely would), that would be the first place they checked. So he sprinted away. Ran up the stairs and kept running through dark corridors he didn’t recognize. There was an ache in his chest that he ignored, intent not to acknowledge it. If he did, he would slow down. If he stopped to check, he would see blood and he would see bruises, and Lance just didn’t want to see that. Two more flights of stairs later, Lance was lost. The lights didn’t come on for him and he knew for a fact that none of them had been this far up in the castle before.

He stopped to survey the hallway he’d found himself in. It was pitch black, no windows looking out to see the fading dwarf stars of Kamala. There were five doors in this hallway, two on his right and three on his left. Each door had an Altean word above it, though he couldn’t make any of it out. The door on the end seemed safe though, and as he went to touch it, the word above his door glowed a bright blue. Without warning, the door slid open, revealing a large bedroom beyond it. Lance stepped in and turned in a slow circle, looking around.

The room was large, at least three times the size of the bedrooms they were staying in now. There was a full bed against the left wall, the sheets and covers all gorgeous shades of blue. In the middle of the floor was a sunken area, lined with pillows and cushions. Blue lights mounted on the right wall filled the room with a serene glow, calming Lance almost instantly. There was another door to his right that he had no current interest in exploring.

The far wall facing the door was a nearly floor to ceiling window. It looked out on the planes of Kamala, it’s golden grass bending lazily in the breeze. The sky was a deep purple, dots of stars beginning to show in the oncoming night.

Lance nearly fell over at the sight. The room was not overly decorative. It wasn’t very elaborate either. But it felt like home, it felt comforting. Everything radiated a sense of coolness, of fluid peace.

Without realizing it, Lance found himself seated on the floor in front of the window, staring out at the darkening world. This planet was so beautiful. From this angle, you couldn’t see where the battle had just taken place, the scorch marks made over the grass, craters in the ground. This was how the planet should look. Quiet breezes blowing past soft, tender reeds. The glow of a village off in the distance.

Sitting there, looking at how right this planet seemed to be, relishing in the serenity that came with this room, Lance forgot why he’d come here in the first place. He forgot why he’d run away, what he’d run away from, the sting and the wetness across his ribs. He let him convince himself he was no one but who he was in that moment: a teenage boy from Cuba on Earth, wishing desperately that the world he was looking at was his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this chapter. Let me know of any grammar mistakes you find so that I may fix them. Feedback always welcome. Join me on Tumblr at RobinPlaysTrumpet15 to keep up with this story, ask questions, or just talk!


	3. Blue As Missing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge work on finding Lance somewhere in the castle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this chapter.
> 
> WARNING: RATING, WARNINGS, AND RELATIONSHIPS SUBJECT TO CHANGE!

“Keith.” Shiro called to the shorter teen. He was ahead of the other three paladins, storming off towards their quarters, looking for Lance. “Keith!”

The black haired teen refused to acknowledge Shiro, even in the slightest. He didn’t slow down, he didn’t turn around, he didn’t glance back.

“Keith, stop!” Shiro demanded. When Keith continued on, Shiro growled low in his throat. “That’s an order, cadet.”

It was a dirty trick, Shiro knew. Knew he was taking advantage of Keith’s training from the Garrison. Knew he was exploiting Keith’s little secret about enjoying when Shiro took charge, commanded him like the leader he was.

Keith stopped in his tracks, still long enough for Shiro to jog and catch up. Neither of them noticed the strange looks they got from Hunk and Pidge, but neither cared either.

Shiro stood carefully in front of Keith, reaching his hands up to rest on the shorter’s shoulders.

“Take a breather. You’re tired and upset. Marching off to kill Lance will not fix any of this.” Shiro whispered, bending down just slightly to be more eye level with the other. Keith’s purple black eyes snapped up to lock with Shiro’s.

“I… I don’t want to kill Lance…” The voice that came out sounded so small and hurt, Shiro didn’t know what to do. His heart melted at the sound of it, and he moved forward half a step to pull Keith into his chest.

“I know you don’t.” Shiro affirmed, wrapping his arms around the red paladin’s smaller frame. Keith’s arms wound their way around Shiro’s chest, his nose buried in Shiro’s shoulder. “Keith, take a second, slow down, think for a moment. Whatever’s going on with Lance, you barging into his room and shouting at him will not help.”

Keith was silent for a moment before nodding minutely. Shiro rubbed at his back a couple of times before pressing his lips to Keith’s temple before pulling back again.

“Go take a shower. We’ll handle it for a little while.” Shiro said. “Okay?”

Keith nodded, pulling away too. Shiro pressed a kiss to his temple again before Keith moved away slowly down the hall.

“Uhh… Shiro?” Pidge started. “What was that?”

Shiro looked back at the two, a deep flush spreading over his cheeks. “I… I-I uh… we-”

Hunk and Pidge watched him stutter for another second before smirking at him.

“We’ll talk about it later.” Hunk assured. Shiro clamped his mouth shut, nodding and turning away. “How about I’ll go check his room, Shiro, check Blue Lion’s hangar. Pidge, can you get into some security cams and try and find him?”

Shiro and Pidge nodded, the three going off in their own directions.

Fifteen minutes later, the three met in the green lion’s hanger where Pidge had set up to watch over security cameras. Lance wasn’t in his room, and he wasn’t with Blue. Shiro had taken a moment to stop and check for him in the training room, but he wasn’t there either.

“Nothing, Pidge.” Shiro called, entering the hangar. “You find him?”

Hunk was bending down to watch Pidge’s computer over their shoulder. “Not on the cameras, but I did find something new.”

“New?” Shiro joined them by the work table. Pidge looked up at him.

“Yeah,” they nodded. “See, most of the castle is usually inactive. Well, except for when Allura or Coran are in their rooms on the higher floors. But there’s something up on the top floor that hadn’t been active the entire time we’ve been here.”

Shiro and Hunk were silent, waiting for the honey brunette to continue.

“There’s this hallway up there with five rooms it connects. These rooms have been marked dormant. Each-”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait. Dormant? How can a room be dormant?” Hunk asked.

Pidge adjusted their glasses, looking at Hunk from the corner of their eye. “They haven’t been active. Or, activated would be a better word since they aren’t barred from us.” They pulled up a different tab on the computer. “Anyway, each room seems to be designed for us. Or, not US specifically, but the paladins of Voltron. Since we haven’t gone up there, or even been told about them, they’ve gone unused. But this says that about five minutes ago, one of them was activated. See how it’s glowing?”

Shiro and Hunk studied the page, looking at the rectangle of blue that was brighter than the muted colors of the other rooms.

“Can you bring up a security feed from that room?” Shiro asked.

Pidge shook their head. “Unfortunately, no. The rooms don’t have anything but sensors to indicate when someone has entered. Once in, you’re essentially invisible. Unless someone was snooping through the castle’s security systems-”

“Like you.”

“-they wouldn’t have a clue where to find you.”

The three were silent, watching the screen as Pidge pulled up the security feed from the hallways outside the room. They began rewinding it, trying to find what had activated the room.

“Are we the only ones who can access the rooms?” Hunk asked.

“I think so,” Pidge nodded, stopping far enough back to see Lance fly into the hallway. “They seem to be similar to our lions. You know, only activated by us instead of anyone else.”

Shiro watched the feed of Lance slowly checking out the windowless hallway and stopping in front of the far door. The Altean marking above the door glowed the same blue the markings had back on earth and the door opened for him. Once the door shut behind him, the word stopped glowing and went back to the way it had been before, no sign that Lance had ever been there.

“Pidge, find a route up there. We’re going to talk to him.” Shiro said, straightening back up. Hunk grabbed his elbow.

“Wait. Maybe we should just send one person.”

“Shiro?” Pidge suggested.

The older teen thought quietly for a second. “Send Keith.”

“Keith?!” Pidge and Hunk exclaimed, nearly falling over comically.

“Why Keith?” Pidge demanded. “The second they see each other, they’ll rip one another to shreds!”

“Yeah, no, Shiro. I don’t think this is a good idea.” Hunk agreed.

Shiro just looked at them. “Pidge, send the route to Keith.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Comments and kudos are always appreciated.
> 
> If you would like to talk, ask questions, or just kill some time, come join me here on Tumblr.


	4. Admitting It Through Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith finds Lance, but before any conversation can happen, there's another issue that needs to be dealt with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, guys, I finally came back to this story. I am so sorry it took this long. I came back to it so many times on my Google Drive, but I just could not find a good way to go about the next chapter. So, after all this time, here it is.
> 
> Unwarning (?): so, despite what the title and the summary may imply, there is no self harm in this chapter. If there was, I would tag it, so please don't freak out on me if that is not something you want to see.
> 
> WARNING: Tags subject to change.

Lance jumped at the knock on the door.

How had they found him? How did anyone know where he was? Lance didn’t even known where he was! How did they?

But there was another knock, and Lance just turned from the window to stare at the door behind him. He made no move to get up, no indication of answering the door. He didn’t want to see anyone. He didn’t want to talk to them. He didn’t want to tell them anything.

His twisting irritated the wound on his side that he had still been ignoring. God, he was going to get crap for this later.

Another knock, this one more persistent than the others.

Lance sighed to himself.

If he just stayed quiet and ignored whoever was there, would they even know he was here? Had they just happened to follow the same path he had all the way up here and into this hallway? Had they knocked on all the other doors, and with no response, moved onto the next one?

Lance wasn’t entirely sure that could all be a coincidence. 

A faster, harder knock followed a few seconds later.

Maybe he couldn’t run from this forever.

Lance pulled himself from the floor, a searing pain shocking through his body. He nearly fell back onto the floor, the soft blue of the floor swirling closer. A gasp tore its way out of his throat, a grunt following it.

“Lance?” A muted voice called through the door.

That… that was Keith’s voice. No no no, he wasn’t the one who followed him, was he?

“Lance, are you alright?”

Lance pawed at his paladin armor, wanting it to be off, but knowing he’d be unable to get it off himself. Despite how hard it was, despite the protection that it offered, it still didn’t help enough. It still allowed whatever trauma to get through and shatter something.

“Lance!”

The brunette hadn’t realized he’d been whining until it was too late.

“Keith…” Lance groaned out, barely loud enough for the sound to reach his own ears, blood pounding in his veins.

An electric, metallic swish sounded through the room and suddenly Keith was kneeling by his side.

“Oh my god, Lance!” Keith’s hands were all over him, feeling his sides, his arms, his stomach. “Where are you hurt?”

“R… ribs… under the armor…”

Suddenly Keith was pulling the armor over Lance’s head, a feeling of looseness engulfing his chest. His lungs expanded fully, the pain harsher as air pulled in.

“Jesus… Lance, what did you do?” Keith muttered, pressing both of his hands against the jagged slice in his skin. The black of Lance’s uniform was staining darker, soaked with blood. Keith couldn’t figure out how Lance had even made it all the way up here with this big of a problem. It had to feel like hell.

“You are such a fucking idiot…”

“Y-yeah… well… what else is new?”

Keith didn’t know what else to do except keep his hands on Lance, keep up the pressure and hope the wound stops bleeding. But he was able to examine Lance a little bit closer.

Nothing else seemed to be wrong. Lance was totally coherent, his pupils weren’t unevenly dilated so he probably didn’t have a concussion. As far as Keith could tell, Lance was injured anywhere else except right here. The teen’s breathing was a little staggered, but that was to be expected when you have a giant cut on your ribs with someone pressing on it just about as hard as they could.

So why… why did everything about this situation seem more wrong than Keith had anticipated it to be?

He wished he could contact one of the others. But his helmet was downstairs with Shiro and Lance’s was… right over there, next to the window.

“Okay…” Keith breathed. “Okay, Lance, we’re going to switch, alright? You’re gonna put your hands where mine are and I’m going to grab your helmet, okay?”

Lance just sort of stared at him, breath coming in heavier gasps.

“Okay?” Keith asked more urgently.

Lance nodded just enough for Keith to accept it.

“Alright. Bring me one of your hands,” Keith instructed. One shaky hand was raised towards Keith’s.

With only a split second lost, Keith switched positions, pressing Lance’s hand to his side and grabbing for the other one. He held them there and looked Lance straight in the eye again.

“Now you hold these here and don’t let go, hear me?” Keith said. Lance nodded again.

The black haired teen all but dove around Lance and grabbed for the blue and white helmet. He jammed it on his head.

“Hey, hello? Does anyone hear me?” Keith yelled into the com.

“Keith? What is it?” Coran’s voice responded not a moment later.

“I found Lance, but he’s hurt. We need help!”

“Where are you?” Allura asked.

“Top floor. I’m not really sure where this place is, but it seems that there are rooms for each of us up here,”

“Got it. We’ll be there soon.”

Keith didn’t even answer her. He scrambled back to Lance’s side, placing his own bloody hands over top of Lance’s to help hold pressure. Again, Keith caught Lance’s eyes and surveyed him.

“Lance, help is coming, okay?” Keith said. “But I need you to keep talking to me, yeah? Talk to me Lance,”

“Fine… what do you want to talk about?” Lance gritted out between his teeth.

“Anything, I don’t care! Just talk!” Keith nearly yelled. He hoped that the com had turned off and that this wasn’t being broadcasted to the others. “Tell me about your family. Tell me about your mom and your dad and your sisters and brothers.”

“I’ve got… three brothers a-and four sisters. T-two of them are married. I have a niece and a nephew.” Lance panted.

“What about your mom and your dad?”

“We call them Mama and Papa…”

“Okay, yeah, Mama and Papa. What about them? Do you look like them?”

Lance shook his head, his eyes screwing shut for a second. “No, I-I don’t really look like either of them… P-papa’s chin is more square, and Mama’s is round. I-I have my mom’s hair…”

“What about your eyes, huh? Tell me who you get those blue eyes from, gorgeous,” Keith prompted.

“M-my dad… my papa…”

Keith was running out of things. What was he supposed to ask about? What did families do together? Keith had never been in a family before, he didn’t know how families bond or what they did when they didn’t do anything at all…

“What do you all do together?” Keith asked.

“We… we used to just… I dunno… hang out. We sang songs together and yelled in Spanish and made jokes and got on each other’s nerves all the time. My brothers were really good at playing instruments like trumpet and guitar and stuff. My sisters are the singers though. They get it from Papa.” Lance said. He didn’t pant, he didn’t screw his eyes shut in pain. He just talked. Albeit, he sounded tired as hell, which Keith was a little worried about, but that would be fine if he just kept talking.

“And you?”

“What?”

“What did you do? Did you play? Did you sing? Both?”

“No… I never really caught on to the whole music thing. Everyone else did, but I could never get it right…”

“But-”

“Lance!”

“Keith!”

The others rushed through the door that hadn’t closed earlier, which, if Lance had stopped to think about it, would have been strange.

Keith was pushed out of the way to let in Shiro and Hunk, two people who apparently knew better than Keith about what to do. Bitterly, Keith thought that if they had just given him the supplies, he could have taken care of Lance, but that was whatever.

“This isn’t bad enough for a healing pod. We’ll clean it up and patch it, but Lance should be fine with just healing naturally.” Coran said, looking in on the situation from over Shiro’s and Hunk’s heads.

Shiro nodded. “Alright.”

Lance was sat up, the top half of his black under clothes stripped off to reach the gash.

“How did this happen?” Shiro asked.

Keith should have asked that.

“One of the times Blue and I were hit, I got thrown from my chair. I dunno, I landed on my side and I guess this happened.” Lance said, staring down at their hands as them wiped away blood and taped a patch of gauze over it.

“Blunt force, I suppose. You hit the ground and the edge of your armor hard enough to break the skin.” Coran said, one hand playing with his mustache.

“And bleed a lot.” Keith muttered.

“Thanks, Captain Obvious,” Hunk said, a hint of amusement hidden beneath his sarcasm.

They all relaxed a second, watching as one of Lance’s hands came up to rest gently against the white gauze.

“You good, Lance?” Shiro asked.

Lance nodded.

“Alright, everyone. Let’s go back downstairs and talk for a bit. The funeral pier will be soon and we’ll need to be ready for it.” Allura said gently, hands clasping in front of her.

Most nodded. Pidge, Coran, and Allura headed towards the door again, Hunk following after a second. Shiro was about to help Lance to his feet when the younger teen’s blue eyes landed on Keith.

“Keith, help me up?”

Some sense of pride welled up in Keith as he stepped forward and grasped Lance’s hand, pulling the taller teen to his feet.

One step forward, and from the uncertainty Lance stood with, Keith pressed up against his side to help support his weight.

Shiro left the room ahead of them, sending the two a glance out of the corner of his eye.

Keith ignored it.

“Keith…” Lance whispered, slowing his pace and allowing Shiro to take a good lead on them.

“Yeah?”

“Why did you come to find me?”

“I wanted to talk to you.”

“Why?”

“Because we’re worried about you. You put yourself in unnecessary danger and it scares me.”

“Wow, I didn’t know you cared about little old me.”

Keith would have pretended to snort at Lance if the comment didn’t unnerve him in a way it totally shouldn’t have.

“What?”

Keith stopped walking. Lance turned and their eyes met, and Lance knew. Lance knew that Keith had guessed. Had maybe put the pieces together and had a hint of a clue of what ran through Lance’s head all the time.

“You said something earlier…”

“I said a lot of things-”

“I called you an idiot and you said what else is new.”

“So?”

“And you said that you can’t play any instrument or sing, except I’ve heard you sing before and you’re really good. And you played at making a joke about me caring about you and I can’t honestly think of a time within the past couple of months where I made any implication that I don’t care about you.”

Lance was silent for a moment, stepping away from Keith and taking his own body weight upon himself. “Well I-”

“Tell me the truth.”

Lance said nothing, and Keith let it hang. The two stared at each other for a really long time.

A storm of thoughts bombarded Lance’s mind. Keith knew. He’d caught on, and he read between the lines that Lance had tried so hard to cover up. It was in the fine print, and who ever read the fine print?! How could Keith, Keith of all people, possibly figured it out just from the past fifteen minutes?! Keith was not that perceptive!

Or maybe he was…

And maybe Lance was the one who didn’t pay attention to anything…

“Keith I-”

“The. Truth. Lance.”

A beat and neither said anything until Lance spoke again.

“I hate myself…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Thank you for being so patient, waiting for this chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it, and I hope that my next chapter will be up soon. Until then, bye!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Feedback is always appreciated, comments especially so. Let me know what you think!
> 
> If you would like to talk more about this, or keep up with how this story is coming, check me out on Tumblr at RobinPlaysTrumpet15


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